Day 1

Well, after a rather slow start, we finally made it past Lincoln. The bike rack was flimsy, and Mike had no faith in it making it the entire trip. We dropped it (and the bikes) off at Sarah Skean’s house (thanks a BILLION, Sarah) and the rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. So, I’m sitting here in the EconoLodge in Dodge City, KS. Apparently, Wyatt Earp is still the sheriff here and the internet hasn’t been invented yet. So, I’m typing this all in Word and I’m gonna copy it to the blog as soon as we find a Starbucks.

As most of you know, Nebraska is probably the most boring state to drive through. Well, I think Kansas has it beat. At least Nebraska has that stupid monstrosity of an arch by Kearney (see pics). Another interesting thing we saw were the bazillion Sandhill cranes everywhere. Every puddle of water and empty field was full of cranes, who all looked a little surprised that their club-med-that-is-Nebraska was still covered in snow.

The moment we crossed over the border to Kansas, the wind picked up. Yes, all you Wizard of Oz fans, I know what you’re thinking and I thought the same thing! Well, it whipped the Subaru around the road for the next 4 hours, or so. Wind-blown and tired (I am battling a nasty spring cold, too), we settled in to the “gorgeous”, “luxurious” EconoLodge on Wyatt Earp Blvd (its right next to a Dairy Queen!) Unless you’ve done it, you can’t imagine how nerve-racking it is to have all your possessions in a car, and to leave it unattended for the night. “Well, doesn’t EconoLodge have a secure parking lot?” you ask. I would love to impart the story that the desk clerk told me when I posed the very question to him. It was basically an admission that it is not secure at all, and in fact, they’re too cheap to hire a security guard like the Holiday Inn down the road. We took a leap of faith and every hour or so, peeked down to make sure no one was messing with our stuff. So this is day three of Anne getting very little sleep. I hope Mike doesn’t want me to drive, because I’m on a combination of Sudafed and Advil, and it’s making me a little bit loopy.

Once Mike gets ready, we’re going to see if there are any salvageable photo-ops in this dump of a city. I’ll tell you: it’s pretty cute that half their streets are named after either cowboys or Indians. I also say a “Mulberry St.” and said “Shouldn’t that really be called Huckleberry street?” Oh Dodge City, you are the little retarded brother of Tombstone. You try to create a kitschy atmosphere with your boot shops and EconoLodges but you’ve failed miserably. For shame, Dodge City. For shame.

We’re gonna hit Santa Fe today, where there will hopefully be both wifi and Sprint service. We love you all!

--Anne

EDIT: thank GOD for libraries.